Stop Supply Of Counterfeit Drugs To Onitsha Market  –Soludo

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The governor of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has enjoined the federal government to intensify efforts against the importation and sale of counterfeit drugs.

In a post on X on Sunday, Soludo stated that banned drugs are going past law enforcement and regulatory agencies into the country.

The African Examiner writes that on Saturday, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) announced that it uncovered banned drugs hidden inside plumbing materials shops at the Onitsha Bridgehead Drug Market in Anambra state.

Subsequently, the market was sealed by regulatory and security agencies due to the alleged trade in banned drugs.

“I visited the Ọgbọ ogwu and adjoining market today in Onitsha. As the biggest open drug market in Africa, it is not surprising that Federal Agencies and regulatory bodies would, from time to time, visit the market to enforce standards and check the sale of fake, counterfeit, and controlled drugs in the market,” the governor writes.

“With drugs and related matters captured strictly on the exclusive list, my visit today was interventionist. First, I sought to ascertain why other markets close to the drug market in Onitsha were closed.

“Away from the media sensation created by a few political actors, the leadership of the Plumbing materials market, which was shut down alongside the drug market, confirmed to me that the discoveries made by the Regulators in some shops in the plumbing material market were both shocking and disturbing.

 “Right inside these shops were found cartons of counterfeit and controlled drugs, many of which had been banned globally. How these drugs, which have been banned globally and locally, are still being manufactured in India, pass through our various ports (sea and air), and find their way to our local drug markets remains a question only the relevant authorities can answer.

“While we must rid our country of fake and counterfeit drugs, it is important for the Federal Government to tighten up the noose on the supply end of the value chain.”

Soludo stated that he has directed the search for banned drugs to be expedited so that the market would be reopened.

He also disclosed that his administration is building a “coordinated wholesale drug centre” in Oba, Idemili south LGA which will end the present “chaotic market environment where fake and counterfeit drugs thrive”.

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